Husband and wife cemetery owners, Ted and Arminda Martin, owners of Grandview Memorial Park in Ravenna, OH and Fairview Memorial Park in Delaware, OH, face a grand jury on August 8, 2017. The Record-Courier newspaper in Ohio reported that the Martin’s are charged with, “Crimes related to the operation of the cemetery, including multiple counts of tampering with records, failure to establish a cemetery trust fund, failure to deposit sales proceeds into a cemetery trust, failure to appoint cemetery trustees, failure to file annual reports and affidavits and misdemeanor charges of failure to register a cemetery”. These charges are just for the Grandview Memorial Park cemetery. Forty-four victims state they purchased vaults, grave markers and plots and those were never delivered.

These are the same cemetery owners of Suburban Memorial Gardens in Dover, Pennsylvania, where some of the grave markers that were purchased were meant for U.S. Military Veterans. Consequently, the Department of Veteran Affairs is now involved as well. A memorandum from the prosecution also stated that the Martin’s bank account records show “cash withdrawals at numerous casinos, totaling approximately $786,533” from 2009 through 2011.

Victim and cemetery advocate, Tim Foor reached out to us at FCA National last week regarding this story. Mr. Foor leads the Cemetery Advocacy Group on Facebook.